Jussarö () is a Finnish

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

. It is located in the municipality of Ekenäs,

Raseborg Raseborg (; , ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern coast of the country. Raseborg is situated in the western part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Raseborg is approximately , while the Raseborg sub-region, sub-region has a popul ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Jussarö is known for the

Jussarö Lighthouse Jussarö Lighthouse (Swedish: ''Jussarö fyr'', Finnish: ''Jussarön majakka'' or ''Jussaaren majakka'') is a lighthouse situated on the skerry of Sundharu, approximately south of the island of Jussarö, outside Raseborg, in the western part ...

. There is also an

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

, but it was closed in 1967. The western part of Jussarö is included in Ekenäs Archipelago National Park.

History

According to church records, the first permanent residents arrived on Jussarö in 1774. By the mid-1780s, there were already six families living on the island. In 1834 promising iron ore deposit were discovered in the northern part of Jussarö. From 1834 to 1837 iron ore was mined on the island by a workforce of 14–18 men. Mining was temporarily suspended from 1838 to 1839 but resumed in 1840 and continued until 1861. In 1891 was built on the southern tip of the island and in 1922 Finland’s first unmanned lighthouse was built on Sundharu islet, southwest of Jussarö. In 1959 Oy Vuoksenniska Ab initiated the construction of a mine on the island and in 1961 the first load of iron ore concentrate was transported to Koverhar (near

Lappohja Lappohja () is a village located in the municipality of Hanko Hanko may refer to Places *Hanko, Finland, town and municipality *Hanko Peninsula, Finland * Hankø, an island in the Oslo Fjord in Norway *The asteroid 2299 Hanko Other uses * ...

). The mine was operated until 1967 ans was closed since iron ore prices were declining while production costs were increasing. In Jussarö, some abandoned buildings still remain, which were used by the military until 2005 for urban war simulations. Many semi-destroyed structures remain from that time, featured in the 2019 TV-series ''Abandoned Engineering''. Jussarö is known as the only

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in Finland. Part of the island is open to visitors.Finland’s abandoned iron ore mine
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Lilla Jussarö

Approximately to the north of Jussarö is Lilla Jussarö. This smaller island, consisting of a few houses and a harbour was once owned by

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

References

External links

*
www.jussaro.fi

Photos from Jussarö at panoramio.com

YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Corporation)
{{Raseborg Cityscape Ghost towns in Europe Finnish islands in the Baltic Former populated places in Finland Mining communities in Finland Islands of Uusimaa Raseborg